First offshore Lidar platform goes live in Asia

The first Offshore Risk Quantification Analysis (ORQA) platform went live in Asia this month after Scottish-based renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, successfully completed the installation on behalf of Hong Kong Electric Company (HEC).

ORQA boasts the latest technology in data monitoring equipment designed specifically to capture meteorological, environmental, wave and tidal data, including SgurrEnergy's Galion Lidar, a second generation laser-based device.

The measurement campaign, located near Lamma Island, Hong Kong, will run for one year and the data captured will be used to inform the planning and construction phases for the proposed offshore wind farm.

Charlie Briggs, Project Manager, commented: "SgurrEnergy is proud to be pioneering this technology offshore, and to be a part of Hong Kong's first offshore wind farm. The team at SgurrEnergy worked closely with the client to ensure a high quality and robust installation."

"ORQA is an alternative solution to costly offshore met masts which see the installation costs increase as the size of the mast increases, due to foundation requirements. The Galion Lidar offers the ability to scan both the full rotor and well above; as turbines get larger and rotors move to the regions of 160m to 180m in diameter, this ability becomes even more important."

Lidar is a mature remote sensing technology that is now successfully being used in wind power applications across the globe. With its unique all-sky scanning capability and 4 km range, SgurrEnergy's Galion Lidar is a cutting-edge technology which is transforming the way that wind flow is understood.

Galion is able to acquire measurements inaccessible to other devices, in terms of vertical profiling, both above the platform and in acquisition of hub height wind speed data at all proposed turbine locations within the Galion's 4 km range.

As part of the project, the Galion Lidar was independently validated against a calibrated test meteorological mast in Germany. The instrumentation chosen was verified as being fit for purpose and the installation of all measurement equipment was validated on-site in Hong Kong.

In addition to running the measurement campaign, SgurrEnergy will also be providing operations and maintenance services to HEC for the one-year monitoring period.